"But we do talk over wires, and it is possible to talk over distances hundreds of miles apart, without wires even."
He glanced at those about him, and shook his head. He appeared to hesitate about asking any more questions, and after shambling back and forth a dozen times, or more, he stopped at the pile of debris, and picked up a thick disk-like piece of metal, to one side of which was a short broken tube attached.
"I have examined this many, many times. Perhaps you can tell me what it is?" and he handed it to John.
"This is the disk of a phonograph."
"What is that?"
"An instrument which will reproduce the human voice, or any noise, or the sound of music."
"I do not understand what you mean. If I talk to it will it talk back to me?"
"No; it is so arranged that one form of the instrument receives the sound of your voice, and impresses it on material in the form of a cylinder, or a disk, and if this cylinder or disk is put into another instrument, this little apparatus, which I hold in my hand will speak the same words you uttered."